


Bowling for Soup Lied

by ratherbeblue



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, High School Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 07:19:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8392330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratherbeblue/pseuds/ratherbeblue
Summary: I've had this in my drafts for months so I decided to buckle up and finally finish it. Here's some High School Reunion trope for your nerve, full of fluff, insecurities, and dancing, oh my!





	

“Abby?” Erin called out as she walked into their new fire house turned headquarters.

Nothing.

“Abby!” She repeated, getting more and more agitated the longer she couldn’t find her.

“She’s not here.” A voice spoke up from behind her.

Erin jumped and turned around. “Holtz! You can’t do that, geez.”

Even after months of working together Erin still hadn’t gotten used to Holtzmann’s frustrating ability to both pull all focus in the room and make herself completely invisible.

She put up her hands in surrender, though she was still smiling, and Erin sighed. “Where’s Abby?”

“Not sure…but, since I seem to have you all to myself,” Holtz replied, raising her eyebrows suggestively. “I have something to show you.”

For a second Erin didn’t respond, but she felt her face heat and her heart rate increase and hoped it wasn’t noticeable.

Apparently it was.

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Gilbert! It’s in my lab.”

“For some reason that doesn’t comfort me.” She shot back. From what she had seen Holtzmann’s lab wasn’t purely a place of professionalism. There were hidden boxes of food littering the area and a couch had at some point taken root. Erin hoped that was only there to satisfy her late nights when she was working to hard to make it back home.

“You haven’t actually moved in here, have you?” She asks, once they’re up the stairs and in the presence of said couch.

“Whaaaa?” Holtz stares at her, one part incredulous and another completely guilty.

“Seriously?”

“Hey, It’s a lot easier to make kick ass weapons when there’s no commute to worry about, besides-”

Erin doesn’t get to hear the rest of Holtz’s defense because as she speaks Abby trudges through the door, umbrella and clothes dripping, but still brandishing dinner for everyone, Patty covered in a bright raincoat behind her.

Erin nearly jumps up to slide downstairs to meet her.

“Oh good, Abby, you’re back.” Erin grabbed the letter she had almost forgotten about from her pocket. “Have you seen this?”

“No, what is that?”

“It’s an invitation.”

“To our high school reunion.” Abby finished as she read the letter in her hands. “Cool, are you going?”

“No! I mean, I don’t know! Look at this, they want us to be the guests of honor, apparently none of the other losers at Battle Creek high school amounted to more than the Ghostbusters.”

“Is that really any surprise?” Abby replied offhandedly as she continued to read. “Hey, do you think they’ll make us do a speech? We can revamp our old science fair rap.”

“You’re actually thinking about going?” Erin couldn’t believe this, she thought they’d both have a good laugh about it and be done.

“Of course, why not? They invited us.”

“I-I don’t know…we could just save ourselves the embarrassment and pretend it got lost in the mail?”

“Tch, Erin, don’t you get it? They’re going to worship us there, in fact, let’s make a weekend of it.” She nodded to the other two women. “What do you say, Ghostbusters road trip?”

“There’s no way I’m saying no to seeing where you two weirdos grew up.” Patty laughs.

“I concur.” Holtz adds, eyes darting between Abby and Erin.

“What do you think, Kev?” Holtzmann asked. “Can you hold down the fort without us?”

“Probably not, I’ll just stay in the, uh, firehouse here.”

Everyone just looked at him for a second until Abby spoke up.

“All right! It’s settled then, looks like we’re going to the reunion!”

…

Erin was almost surprised at how fast plans came together for them to make it back to their home town. Within weeks they had figured out which flights they would take and where everyone would stay. Neither Abby nor Erin’s parents had moved away so they decided to forego trying to fit hotels into the budget, and although Erin wasn’t sure exactly how she felt about being back she knew it would be fine as long as she had her friends with her.

On the flight over Abby and Erin shared stories about Battle Creek as Holtz and Patty listened attentively, proven by the first words out of their mouths when they arrived.

“Y’all weren’t lying, it really does smell like Fruit Loops here.” Patty said as they unloaded themselves from the taxi.

“I was hoping for Coco Puffs.” Holtz adds.

“You’re lucky it’s not just chemical fumes,” Abby tells them. “although that probably wouldn’t be that much worse than the city.”

“Hey, New York has character!” Patty protests, but Erin is too distracted by the sight of the house she hasn’t seen in years, but also lived most of her life in to join in or break up the bickering.

“Home sweet home?” Holtz asks, closer to Erin than she had realized.

“Y-yeah. This is it.”

“Well than, we better skedaddle.” Holtz told her, grabbing the suitcases Erin didn’t even notice had been unloaded. She turned back just in time to see Abby and Patty waving them off from the taxi that would take them another mile south to Abby’s parents’ place.

…

“Is this where she was?”

“What?” Erin asked distractedly, it had been a long time since she’d been in her childhood bedroom and it was barely recognizable to her now.

“The ghost.” She answers. “I wasn’t lying when I said I had questions.”

“Oh.” Erin looked around to where Holtz was standing, right at the foot of the bed, and incidentally, exactly where the ghost had once stood. “Yeah, you got it.”

…

“You know; you still carry all your tension in your shoulders.” Holtzmann says later, as they’re getting ready to sleep. Erin can barely stop herself from shivering at the feeling of breath against the back of her neck.

“Go to sleep, Holtz.”

Erin had almost forgotten the way she had greeted her when they met. A casual “ _You carry a lot of tension in your shoulders_.” Now, she knew Holtzmann was just a shameless flirt, but back then the way she had let that comment slip from her silver tongue had made her wake up at night in a cold sweat. Wondering if that were an observation or an invitation, to what she still wasn’t sure.

In any case now isn’t the time to dwell on that, not when Holtzmann is inches away and radiating heat, making it impossible to forget the fact.

..

“Erin Gilbert. And this is my plus one, Jillian Holtzmann.”

“Oh! Of course, we’re so glad you made it, everyone’s so happy that the Ghostbusters are here! Here’s yours” She handed one nametag to Erin, then the next to Holtzmann. “And your date’s.”

“Thanks.” Erin smiled tightly at the women in front of her. She recognized her vaguely as someone who might have been on prom committee, or maybe a cheerleader, but definitely one of those who called her ghost-girl.

The event was taking place in the school’s gym and it looked surprisingly similar to the kinds of dances she was never invited to when she went to school there.

“She thought we were dating.” Holtzmann murmurs and blinks up at her owlishly. “Does that bother you?”

“Wh-what? Why, I mean, why would that bother me?” Erin laughed nervously.

Holtzmann smiled widely and turned around to make her way towards the snack table.

Erin took a deep breath to calm herself before scanning the room for Abby and Patty, maybe she should have lied, pretended to be uncomfortable, pretended like she didn’t wish the girl had been right.

…

She should have known there was trouble brewing when she saw Holtzmann chatting with the DJ earlier. Should have been more alert when they chose a table right on the edge of the dance floor, but Erin was too engrossed in her notecards for the speech she would have to give later that she didn’t notice it beyond peripheral information.

Instead she just sat their in blissful ignorance until Holtz put out one hand in front of her face, making her blink once before understanding.

“O-Oh! We’re dancing?” Erin blushed lightly as she took Holtzmann’s hand. “Don’t set anything on fire this time.”

“No promises.” Holtzmann winked and spun her onto the dance floor.

The both laugh and as the music played Erin wondered what the two of them must look like. Her uncomfortable dress swayed around her knees as Holtzmann lead her in a near tango. Occasionally she would give her a wolfish grin to warn her before leading her into a dip or spinning her around.

She gasped and cackled in delight and terror when, towards the end, Holtzmann lifted her up slightly to the beat of the music.

“I’ve always wanted to do that!” Holtz tells her, and Erin laughs more. “If we keep practicing I bet we can remake the end of Dirty Dancing.”

“Whatever you say, Swayze.”

She was still laughing when Holtzmann lead them both back to the table they shared with Abby and Patty.

“Fancy footwork you got there, Holtzy!” Patty laughed, and vaguely Erin noticed others around them agreeing.

“Don’t think I forgot about you, Patty!” she shot back, pretending to reel her onto the dance floor.

Patty played along and soon enough they were bouncing to the beat of a new song among the rest of Abby and Erin’s graduating class.

Erin sighed as she watched them and Abby raised an eyebrow.

“What are you doing?” She asked, maybe a little to accusatory between friends.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re eyeing up Holtz, aren’t you?” She continued when Erin tried to protest. “You’ve got those big sad eyes you used to get with Kevin…and Greg…and Paul, and-”

“I get it. You know a lot of names.”

“No, no, no. I know a lot of names of people you used to have crushes on.”

“Well I don’t have a crush on Holtz, so you can cross that one of your list.”

“Look, I get it. When I was working with Holtzmann all those years all I could think about was how good she would have been for you… I love you, but sometimes you get too wrapped up in your head, you need something like ghosts or an extremely weird girlfriend to pull you out of it, okay?”

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about.” Erin slightly murmured as she kept her eyes on the dance floor, but she couldn’t stop the flutter she felt in her stomach at the thought of Holtz being her girlfriend.

…

“Penny for your thoughts?” Holtz, fresh off the dance floor, finds Erin outside, about 10 feet from a group of smokers huddled outside the gym doors. Abby had tipped her off to where she went, but didn’t say why.

“It’s just so weird…These people made my life hell for four years straight and now they act like they know me…or like me. And I don’t think I like it.” Erin sighed. The majority of her professional life had been spent trying to impress person after person, and therapy had taught her that stemmed from her unwavering unpopularity in her youth, but now that those people are falling at her feet she wants nothing to do with it.

The family she had built with Patty and Holtz, and re-built with Abby, was all she needed now.

“Hey.” Holtzmann says softly. “Let’s go home.”

“But the speech, and-”

“Abby can handle it. Let’s go home.” She repeated.

Erin was so tired. She didn’t want to argue either.

“Okay.” Erin agrees, grabbing Holtz’s hand as they make their way out of the school’s gym. On their way out she couldn’t help the flutter in her heart she felt at Holtz talking about ‘home’.

…

“How about you take me up on that massage offer now, huh?” Holtz murmurs, walking her fingers down Erin’s shoulder.

“Oh! Um…no…no, thank you.”  She says, shrugging off Holtz’s hand.

“Oh.” Holtz says. She stands a little stiffly and starts making her way towards the cot from the night before.

“No, no, you can stay! I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, I can take a hint.”

“No, no, it’s not that…it’s just…” She bites her lip. “Don’t laugh, okay?”

Holtz crosses her heart.

“Scouts honor!” she assures her.

“It’s just that I’m really ticklish and I’m afraid if you do that I’ll elbow you in the face and I’d really rather not spend our first night together in the ER.”

“O-okay, so no massage.”

“No massage.” Erin agreed. “But…I think we could work something else out.”

As she spoke Erin moved her hand up to cup Holtzmann’s face. Her fingers skittering around her jawline before moving up to nearly tangle in her hair that had fallen loose.

“Yeah?”

Holtz moved closer.

“Just keep your hands firm and where I can see them.”

Closer.

“Yes, ma’am.” Holtz mumbled, nearly against Erin’s lips, closing the space finally.

Erin moaned into the kiss, holding her tight and not wanting it to end ever.

But, as all things, eventually it must.

Holtz took a deep breath before speaking to Erin. She hated having serious conversations, and even more so when they involved feelings.

“Before anything else, I just want to make sure you know that I really like you.” She let out in a rush.

Erin looked up at her and smiled gently, a little confused.

“I really like you too, Holtz. Why else would I let you in my bed?” she asked.

Holtz felt herself burn a little with embarrassment. A small part of her had felt like Erin was just doing this as a courtesy, or for a cheap thrill, but now she knew she had judged her unfairly.

They were in this together.

Holtzmann and Erin took their time undressing each other, only stopping after Holtz kicked off her oversized flannel pants.

“O-oh, I…” Erin didn’t know how to continue, but her hand flexed where it hovered above the skin on Holtz’s thigh and she got the message.

“It’s fine, chemical burn, all scar tissue now, don’t worry about it.” Holtz sounded nervous besides the dismissal quality to her words. “I learned my lesson about wearing pants in the lab.”

“I’m glad!” Erin laughed nervously, reaching for the elastic of her boxers, only to be stopped by Holtzmann’s warm hand on her wrist.

“Wait, I um, want to tell you something, but it’s a little embarrassing and a lot emotional.”

“You going soft on me, Holtz?” Erin murmurs.

“You wish.” She smiles. “I think it’s really admirable, the way you fought so hard to stand with them. Some people might think it’s a weakness to want to fit in, but it’s not. Sometimes it’s more cowardly to pretend you’re okay with being alone when you’re really not.”

She sounds like she’s speaking from personal experience and Erin wants to hold her and never let go.

“You are an amazing person, Jillian Holtzmann.” She said it as a matter of factly as she rattles off physics equations and Holtz felt herself tear up a little as she gazed into Erin’s big blue eyes.

“Back at ya.”

Erin smiles.


End file.
